Musical Hell

Alejandra Pizarnik (1936–1972) was born in Argentina and educated in Spanish and Yiddish. In addition to poetry, Pizarnik also wrote experimental works of theater and prose. She died of a deliberate drug overdose at the age of thirty-six. The poet Yvette Siegert has also translated The Reef by Juan Villoro and Alejandra Pizarnik’s poetry collections A Musical Hell, Diana’s Tree, and Extracting the Stone of Madness, for which she won the 2017 Best Translated Book Award.

"Translated by Yvette Siegert, this collection recalls a collusion of whimsy and gravitas apparent in Cortázar’s work while simultaneously presenting the poet’s own unique lyric sensibility."